Page 9

Jay

T his was all very bad indeed.

Jay knew that. He knew he needed to take action, to be decisive.

But he also knew he was having an extremely hard time focusing.

He was a little revved up from feeding—especially since he hadn’t gotten to finish—and Alexei smelled so very good . Jay’s little beastie really wanted a taste. Just one itty-bitty taste.

But that would be bad, right?

Jay licked the blood off his lips, very conscious of Colin standing directly behind him. Right. No tasting his regular.

But oof. His beastie did not agree with that statement.

Alexei was staring, his wide mouth a bit slack, and with Jay’s vampire face out, he could see every bit of color in those extremely pretty eyes of his.

Hazel, that was what they were technically called.

He’d had to look it up to be sure; it didn’t seem like a big enough word to capture just how compelling he found them.

“What— Your teeth…,” Alexei rasped.

Oh. Right. Jay’s teeth. His fangs .

Jay took a few deep breaths, pushing his beastie back within himself, the task requiring a little extra effort than normal. He wiped his mouth with the back of his sweater sleeve, hoping he was managing to get all the drops of blood.

He could get a little…messy, when he was hungry.

The worst part was he had barely been getting started when Alexei had stumbled into their feeding. He still was quite hungry.

But he’d have to deal with that later. Right now he had a shocked human to somehow placate.

Human face firmly in place, Jay started with a friendly wave. “Hello, Alexei. Fancy seeing you here.”

At closer inspection, Alexei, although handsome as ever, was looking quite mussed: those pretty eyes were glazed over, his lovely hair was loose from his bun, and there was a slight boozy smell layered over his usual delicious scent.

The man was definitely drunk. Or at least, probably drunk. Jay didn’t actually have all that much experience with drunk humans; Vee had always wanted sober prey so as not to get sloppy from drinking their alcohol-laden blood.

Alexei was also apparently speechless now that Jay’s face had changed right in front of his eyes. He hadn’t answered Jay’s greeting at all. Jay supposed the transformation must be a little startling, if one wasn’t used to it.

Jay glanced over his shoulder, back at Colin. “Maybe you should head out. I can get Alexei where he needs to go.”

Colin’s brow was furrowed, his pink cheeks contrasting with his blue hair. “But—but he saw…”

“It’s okay,” Jay soothed. “I’ll explain it to him.”

Colin frowned down at Jay, a stubborn set to his jaw, which Jay supposed he should have expected.

His manager was very protective of Jay, ever since Jay had told him the truth of what he was.

“I’ll be okay, Colin,” Jay reassured. “Be sure to drink plenty of water when you get home. I only took a little, but…still.”

He turned back to Alexei, who was pointing an unsteady finger at the pair of them, a new, hard glint to his eyes. “The two of you…together?”

Did he mean romantically? “No,” Jay told him, biting back a giggle at the thought.

“Yes,” said Colin at the same time.

“Colin,” Jay reprimanded, frowning back at the lanky human.

Colin stepped a bit closer, leaning down to whisper in Jay’s ear. “That would be the simplest explanation to what he’s just seen. The kind of thing someone might expect: two people hooking up in an alley.”

Jay supposed that could be true, even though hooking up with someone in an alley didn’t sound all that great to him, personally. But it would also be a lie. And Jay did not like lies.

He stepped forward, away from Colin and toward Alexei. “We’re not boyfriends. I’m just a vampire.”

Now it was Colin’s turn to say his name like a reprimand. “ Jay. You can’t go around telling everybody you’re a vampire.”

“I’m not telling everybody ,” Jay said, his voice rising a bit in his defensiveness. “This makes two people I’ve told. You and now Alexei.” Colin still looked disapproving, so Jay tried to find a positive spin. “Now the two of you have something in common!”

“A vampire.” Alexei gave a strange, coughing laugh, crossing his arms over his chest. “You two are into some kinky shit.”

Jay’s brow furrowed. “It’s not a sex thing. Here, look.” He let out his little beastie again, careful to remind it that they would not be biting the nice-smelling human, and stepped closer so Alexei could get a better look. “See?” Jay smiled wide, pointing to his teeth. “Fangs.”

Unfortunately, Alexei didn’t seem to find Jay’s fangs all that reassuring.

Jay watched as the blood drained from Alexei’s face, leaving him looking decidedly pale.

He really hoped the human wasn’t going to faint on him.

Jay was strong enough to carry him, sure, but he had no idea where Alexei lived.

“Holy fucking fuck.” Alexei stared at Jay’s mouth for another moment, rubbed at his brow with two fingers, and then waved a hand at Colin. “So you weren’t kissing his neck.”

“I told you, it’s not sexual.” Jay shot a glance over his shoulder at Colin, who still had a pretty blush on his cheeks. “Well, not totally sexual. Feeding can be very pleasurable to huma—”

“Jay,” Colin pleaded.

Uh-oh. Was that not polite to share? Jay cocked his head. “You don’t want him to know that part?”

Colin ran a hand through his blue hair, sighing. “Just…not while I’m around. I don’t want to have to look him in the eyes.”

Jay nodded in understanding, even if he didn’t actually fully understand. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with his arrangement with Colin. Jay needed to eat; Colin had been curious about some of the physical responses to feeding. It worked well for both of them.

Jay hadn’t known all that when he’d first approached Colin about feeding though. All he’d known was that his manager was kind, already sort of protective, and seemed to have a steady enough head on his shoulders that he maybe wouldn’t freak out about the existence of vampires.

And Jay had really, really needed to eat.

Alexei, meanwhile, had moved even closer, his broad frame positively looming over Jay’s, and Jay had to force himself to take regular, even breaths—rather than inhale greedily—because even with that layer of booze, the human still smelled so very good.

He was so focused on his breathing he didn’t notice Alexei move, but before Jay knew it, Alexei had gripped him by the upper arms—he was quite strong, for a human—and was peering down at Jay’s eyes. “Whoa.”

“Pretty neat, huh?” Jay liked his vampire face. He thought it gave him a bit of toughness he normally lacked.

Alexei looked over Jay’s shoulder to Colin again. “You were drinking his blood?”

Jay bounced onto his toes, pleased they were finally getting through to the probably drunk human. “Yes.”

Alexei went back to studying Jay’s face again, and Jay tried not to squirm under the scrutiny. All the attention made him want to do something weird, like lick Alexei’s strong, straight nose.

“Do you want to drink my blood?” Alexie asked.

Jay’s lips parted as his beastie took sharp notice.

“Um…are you offering?” he asked, even knowing that wouldn’t be a good idea.

Mostly because Alexei was maybe drunk and possibly didn’t really understand what he was consenting to.

And also because if Jay drank from him, they would both be drunk, and that probably wouldn’t help the situation at all.

Alexei had released one of Jay’s arms, and his finger was now a hairbreadth from Jay’s mouth. “I just— Well, do you?”

Jay still couldn’t tell if Alexei was legitimately offering or just curious. “You smell very good,” he admitted, tongue darting out to wet his lips. “But not right now, thank you.”

He pushed his human face forward again, and then for some reason, Alexei was running a finger over Jay’s lips, and ohh, that felt very, very nice.

Jay closed his eyes, leaning in a bit to the sensation. It was pleasant to be touched so nicely, even a little bit.

A throat cleared from behind them, and Jay was brought back to his senses with a start. “Oh. Right.” He took a step back, surprised when Alexei readily released him. “Alexei, where do you live? We’ll get you home.”

But Alexei was already shaking his head with uncharacteristic aggression, his free tendrils of hair whipping around his head. “No, no, no. You can’t tell me vampires exist, that you are one, and then just send me on my way.”

Jay frowned. “Well, you can’t stay here. It’s freezing. You’re starting to shiver.” Alexei’s finger had been quite cold against Jay’s lips. Nice but cold.

Alexei continued to shake his head, and then Jay had a wonderful, splendid, terrible idea. “Alexei, do you want to come home with me?”

Jay was pleased that Alexei handled the walk home just fine.

Well, he did keep leaning on Jay, putting a good portion of his weight onto Jay’s shoulders. That part was fine; Jay was super strong. But the issue was the human smelled so good, and Jay was so hungry, and his fangs kept wanting to pop out.

His little beastie even started speaking to him, which it rarely ever did. Just a little taste , it pleaded.

No, beastie. No biting without permission.

Jay would have to make new arrangements with Colin in the morning. But for now—after convincing Colin that yes, the two of them would be just fine alone and no, he didn’t need to compel Alexei to forgetfulness right then and there—they were at Jay’s little duplex in no time at all.

Jay was surprisingly nervous approaching his apartment, his stomach a funny little ball of knots. He didn’t have guests often. He wished he did, but Soren and Danny both had proper houses, so he often just went over to theirs when they spent time together.

He tried to make some conversation to cover his nerves as he unlocked the door for them. “So, Alexei. Do you get drunk often?”